1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of business process outsourcing (BPO). More particularly, the invention relates to using data warehouses to improve outcomes in enterprise level processes.
2. Related Art
Large enterprises, such as corporate entities and governmental agencies, are typically interested in finding ways to improve efficiencies and reduce waste in their respective business processes. Due to the economies of scale, a relatively minor process improvement may make a large difference in the revenue stream and/or profitability yielded by the process. In many instances, this approach entails efforts to gain efficiency in the process, or in some portion of the process. However, such an approach often fails to cause corresponding improvements in the overall outcome of the process. In this manner, such apparent efficiency gains may be suboptimal or even illusory.
In many instances, organization and supply chain silos often restrict the end-to-end view of business processes, thus causing value leakage at the interfaces. In addition, many companies have an insufficient understanding of the inter-linkages between granular process metrics and business outcomes. Hence, they may be unclear about which levers influence which business outcomes, and by how much. Further, many enterprises have limited access to granular benchmarks, thereby depriving decision makers of standards against which to measure process performance and disabling them from setting appropriate targets. Over-reliance on the technology lever often results in unrealized value from process rigor and analytics.
Recently, with increases in computer storage capacities and processing speeds, data warehousing has become more common as a means of storing and utilizing large amounts of data. Accordingly, there has been much study regarding how to effectively exploit such large volumes of data. In particular, there is an open question as to how to use data warehouses to improve enterprise level process outcomes. Accordingly, the present invention is intended to address this question.